New friend request scam on Facebook

There are messages going around warning about a fake friend request:

Hi….I actually got another friend request from you yesterday…which I ignored so you may want to check your account. Hold your finger on the message until the forward button appears…then hit forward and all the people you want to forward too….I had to do the people individually. Good Luck! PLEASE DO NOT ACCEPT A NEW ONE FROM ME AT THIS TIME.

Fact check

We already know what this messages are warnung about: It’s about identity theft on Facebook. Here’s how it works:

Scammer clone profiles of real individuals, copy their names and pictures etc. Afterwards they look through their Facebook friends and send each a friend request, which most accept, since they have to believe it’s their friend which they already know.

If you were to accept such a friend request, the scam profile immediately sends a personal message. They ask for your mobile phone number and for the codes they sent you. Be careful! These codes are pure money!

With these numbers the scammers are able to debit money from your mobile phone bill. Just giving your phone number alone does not, fortunately.

Remember: Never give codes sent via SMS to apparent friends on Facebook!

Is the warning real then?

The threath about the scam is real, BUT: Just forwarding that warning as with a chain letter is useless. There is no use to forwarding this warning to any of your Facebook friends unless you had actually received a second friend request from one of them. Without providing context and no necessity the warning itself sounds like a scam.

If you actually have reason to believe your account got cloned, you should just ask several of your friends if they received strange messages from a duplicate of you, as well as searching in Facebook for a second profile with your name. If you find one, report them to Facebook immediately so that it gets deactivated.